“Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.”
Maxim 872
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
Section 22
Laelius De Amicitia – Laelius On Friendship (44 BC)
Nam et secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia et adversas partiens communicansque leviores.
“Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.”
Maxim 872
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
“Prosperity proves men to be fortunate, while it is adversity which makes them great.”
Secunda felices, adversa magnos probent.
XXXI.
Panegyricus
Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
Context: The virtue of prosperity, is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”
Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
“It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.”
Aristotle, 9.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics
“Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.”
"Callahan's Law", as expressed in The Callahan Chronicals (1996) [originally published as Callahan and Company (1988)], Part IV : Earth … and Beyond, "Post Toast", p. 388. On the back cover of Callahan's Legacy (1996) this is modified into "Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased (and bad puns are appreciated).
(Often shortened to "can't stand prosperity" as an unknown quote).
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Man of Letters
“Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.”